Channel Promotion and Retention Rate

[KiddieToysReview]

Could some educate me as to what is considered as good retention. For example;

Channel - less 1 year old/ less than 100 subs - good retention: .... Bad retention:....
Channel - less 2 year old/ less than 1000 subs - good retention: .... Bad retention:....

Anything less than 1k subs is generally filled with other creators and s4s channels. The retention will be skewed towards the reasons "why" the other channels and creators are watching.

I can only speak from the kids vertical perspective. At less than 1k subs, retention is generally between 10% and 25%, tending towards the lower end. Other channels are returning your views, watching while commenting, wanting to see if you have what it takes, learning, or if something is hitting, watching to write down scene by scene to redo the video for themselves.

Once you hit higher sub levels and are getting real viewers, ie kids 3-7 y.o. and not just other channels, your retention moves into the 1 SD of the bell curve. For kids toys channels, it is generally around the 35% mark for "standard" view duration videos of under 10 minutes. If you have videos on the low end, say 2-3 mins long, your retention will tend towards the 80%. If your videos are towards the 20 minute mark, your retention will be closer to 10-20%. Basically, kids watch about 2-3 minutes before swiping or clicking away on average across the vertical, % retention is a simple calculation of video length to watch time.

There is such a wide variety of factors to determine what "good" and "bad" is, there is no simple answer. It is a continuum of possibilities. Other factors play more importance.

 

[babyteeth4]

I hate when channels comment on my videos just to get their name out there...it's just another form of spam. It's one thing to actually comment constructively and interact, but so many of these channels are just spammers using other people's channels to promote their own stuff. It's not why YouTube made the comments section. Not cool, IMO.

 

[wickisworld]

You've received some great replies here! To reiterate what's been said regarding your question about social media- the bottom line is that social media just brings on other channels when it's in the childrens genre. I haven't reached my target audience yet, most of my subs come from other channels who want a sub back. I have recently started posting a lot less on social media because of it. My retention rates are low and it's because of those channels. KiddieToysReview hit the nail on the head with his response (as usual!)

Some of the children we know personally who watch our videos have raised the retention rates on their favorite videos of ours. I had the retention rate of one video that was 14 minutes long go way up because one of my 4 year old sons friends loves it and watches it a lot. Doing the necessary strategies to get more of your target audience is definitely what you should focus on. That's going to be my focus now as well.

 

[SweetsAndCandy]

I have recently started posting a lot less on social media because of it. My retention rates are low and it's because of those channels. KiddieToysReview hit the nail on the head with his response (as usual!)

Yeah, I guess you guys are right. What about disabling comments in order to get rid of other channels commenting below the video???

 

[FamilyToyReview]

Anything less than 1k subs is generally filled with other creators and s4s channels. The retention will be skewed towards the reasons "why" the other channels and creators are watching.

I can only speak from the kids vertical perspective. At less than 1k subs, retention is generally between 10% and 25%, tending towards the lower end. Other channels are returning your views, watching while commenting, wanting to see if you have what it takes, learning, or if something is hitting, watching to write down scene by scene to redo the video for themselves.

Once you hit higher sub levels and are getting real viewers, ie kids 3-7 y.o. and not just other channels, your retention moves into the 1 SD of the bell curve. For kids toys channels, it is generally around the 35% mark for "standard" view duration videos of under 10 minutes. If you have videos on the low end, say 2-3 mins long, your retention will tend towards the 80%. If your videos are towards the 20 minute mark, your retention will be closer to 10-20%. Basically, kids watch about 2-3 minutes before swiping or clicking away on average across the vertical, % retention is a simple calculation of video length to watch time.

There is such a wide variety of factors to determine what "good" and "bad" is, there is no simple answer. It is a continuum of possibilities. Other factors play more importance.

Yeah im basically getting 2-3 minutes of views for entire channel. Trying to grow my channel i am not happy with 2 minutes and I try to make videos that average closer to the 3 min. The avg min watched is not good enough though. I have quite a few 3 min watch avg or longer videos that do not get enough promotion by youtube. So other factors are impt too. You need three legs to support a stool.

 

[KiddieToysReview]

Yeah im basically getting 2-3 minutes of views for entire channel. Trying to grow my channel i am not happy with 2 minutes and I try to make videos that average closer to the 3 min. The avg min watched is not good enough though. I have quite a few 3 min watch avg or longer videos that do not get enough promotion by youtube. So other factors are impt too. You need three legs to support a stool.

The other day at my daughter's dance class we were sitting on the floor, in front was a Mom and her maybe 3 year old. Being a 3 y.o. he got restless, so Mom gave him her phone. Of course he goes to Yt, and the first video that pops up is RTR. So the kid sits there flipping from one RTR video to the next every 5 to 10 seconds. Perhaps a few videos kept his attention for 30 seconds, but not much more. He just swiped video to video. Individual retention is terrible, session time is great as he did that for most of the dance lesson.
I've seen similar behavior on several occasions with young kids - another good place is the Thai temple where all the Moms give their kids phones to keep them quiet while the Monks are doing their thing at the front. Generally younger kids are on for less than 30 seconds per video, from my observations.
The comment about the real friends watching video longer is true. My daughters' friends who watch their videos seem to watch the whole way through, or the most part at least. This is the 6-7 age group. It certainly is worthwhile getting all your real-world friends and their kids watching your video to offset skim viewing.
Young viewers (2-4 yo) seem to drag the retention down, while older kids (6-7) would bring it up. (Once gain, my observations only). Of course s4s channels would drag it down too.
I think if there is any genre specific coding in the algo, this behavior of kids would be accounted for. However other channels' creators watching from their desktop pcs logged into their channel accounts, would likely not be factored in, and would be detrimental.

 

[Candy Candy Man]

Thanks a lot.[DOUBLEPOST=1494631111,1494631084][/DOUBLEPOST]

Anything less than 1k subs is generally filled with other creators and s4s channels. The retention will be skewed towards the reasons "why" the other channels and creators are watching.

I can only speak from the kids vertical perspective. At less than 1k subs, retention is generally between 10% and 25%, tending towards the lower end. Other channels are returning your views, watching while commenting, wanting to see if you have what it takes, learning, or if something is hitting, watching to write down scene by scene to redo the video for themselves.

Once you hit higher sub levels and are getting real viewers, ie kids 3-7 y.o. and not just other channels, your retention moves into the 1 SD of the bell curve. For kids toys channels, it is generally around the 35% mark for "standard" view duration videos of under 10 minutes. If you have videos on the low end, say 2-3 mins long, your retention will tend towards the 80%. If your videos are towards the 20 minute mark, your retention will be closer to 10-20%. Basically, kids watch about 2-3 minutes before swiping or clicking away on average across the vertical, % retention is a simple calculation of video length to watch time.

There is such a wide variety of factors to determine what "good" and "bad" is, there is no simple answer. It is a continuum of possibilities. Other factors play more importance.

Thanks